windows server 2008 bv white paper

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White Paper

Published: February 2008

For the latest information, please see:www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008



Contents

Executive Summary ...................................................................3

Agility.......................................................................................................4

Reduced Cost...........................................................................................5Management............................................................................................6

Reliability.................................................................................................7

Foundation for Business Solutions............................................................8

Support.....................................................................................................9

Windows Server Usage Scenarios..............................................10

Security and Policy Enforcement............................................................10

Branch Office..........................................................................................11

Web and Application Platform................................................................12

Server Management...............................................................................12

Presentation Virtualization ....................................................................13High Availability.....................................................................................14

Customer Evidence...................................................................15

Conclusion...............................................................................19

About Capgemini and the Collaborative Business Experience......21

MICROSOFT INTERNAL USE ONLY

LAST UPDATED MARCH 21st



Executive Summary

The newest server operating system (OS) from Microsoft, Windows Server®

2008, contains significant enhancements and improvements over prior

releases. Over the course of interviewing early adopters of WindowsServer 2008, Capgemini has gathered evidence that Windows Server 2008delivers improved value to businesses and the Information Technology (IT)departments that support them when compared with the previous serveroperating system, Windows Server 2003.

Capgemini spoke to a number of companies and institutionsthat use Windows Server 2008 in a mix of geographies andindustries.1 What we found was that the new OS quickly andclearly adds value to IT operations through simplifiedmanagement, security, and reliability, with an averagedeployment duration of just 10.25 weeks and a resultingaverage IT cost reduction of U.S.$124,000. Companiesattempting to reduce their server footprint were projected tobe able to increase their existing hardware capacity by 54percent simply by deploying Windows Server 2008. Advancesin business processes and new opportunities to generatebusiness value were not as apparent. However, we found thatWindows Server 2008 gives business applications a superiorbase upon which to improve business value over time.Moreover, the most consistent feedback we heard was that along-term strategy was being developed around WindowsServer 2008 to utilize more of the features customers haddiscovered during the limited initial deployment. Many

companies foresaw unique, high-value business applicationsresulting from even minor enhancements of the operatingsystem.

We found that all of the companies we talked to that hadimplemented a Windows Server 2008–based solution had thesame fundamental server needs: agility, reduced cost,simplified management, reliability, foundation for businesssolutions, and support. In our analysis, this list becomes thebusiness situation or need, Windows Server 2008 is thesolution, and our customer evidence shows how the WindowsServer 2008 operating system provides business value.

1 Industries include financial services, education, retail, and high technology. Geographies include the United States,United Kingdom, and Asia Pacific.

“[Windows Server 2008]contains features thatare of keen interest tospecific-use models. Forexample, organizationswith remote locations

may regard RODCs[read-only domaincontrollers] as a killerfeature; or organizationsthat use IIS [MicrosoftInternet InformationServices] fully mayregard IIS 7.0 as a killerfeature. Gartnerencouragesorganizations to readMicrosoft's improvement

list to identify anypotential killer features.”

“Windows Server 2008:Why You Should Care,” John Enck, Gartner,September 25, 2007



Windows Server 2008 Drives Business Value: A Look at Windows Server 2008 in the Field 4

Server Value to the Server Customer

In our conversations with customers that have deployed the WindowsServer 2008 operating system, we heard consistent feedback on whatthese customers expect servers to do for them. The value and expectationof a server and its OS is to provide a reliable base infrastructure thatenables business solutions without costing too much, slowing things down,or requiring extensive management. We categorized these customerexpectations into six fundamental needs:

• Agility – A server’s ability to react quickly to changing demandsand capacity requirements.

• Reduced Cost – A lower total cost of ownership (TCO) across theboard, from licensing, number of physical servers needed, and ITsupport through automation and self-service.

• Simplified Management – The easing of pain points related to

server and client software deployments, and management tools thatare powerful and easy to use.

• Reliability – A server environment that has little or no down time,is secure, and requires minimal updating.

• Foundation for Business Solutions – A platformthat provides the server infrastructure to run currentand future business applications.

• Support – A business that stands behind itsproducts and provides guidance, troubleshooting,updates, and an upgrade path.

The insight we gathered from the customers with whom wespoke was surprisingly uniform and related directly tomany of the new features of Windows Server 2008. Thissection details what we learned.

Agility

Capgemini’s 2007 Global CIO Survey reported that 93percent of CIOs believe that an agile IT department leadsto an agile business. Conversely, the speed and agility of business are often tied down by the speed of its

operations. One of the largest IT problems for a business ororganization is the speed of building and deploying newapplications. Servers have become a commodity that ITmanagers expect to be able to exchange, upgrade, buildout, build up, and run without impediment. Unfortunately,procuring hardware, installing an operating system, andthen configuring the operating system can be a bottleneck

in a process that users of the platform take for granted.

“For Verizon Business, amajor North American ITservices and hostingcompany, speed of deployment is a top-linecontributor as well as a

bottom-line reduction.Windows DeploymentService in Windows Server2008 allowed Verizon toeliminate most of itscustom deployment toolsand attract new customersby being able to betterbuild out hosted systems.Windows Server 2008gives Verizon Business acompetitive advantage.”

Verizon Business case study,Capgemini and Microsoft, January 2008




One of the major improvements of the Windows Server 2008 operatingsystem over previous versions is that it can be quickly set up andconfigured for a large number of servers. Windows® Deployment Servicesin Windows Server 2008 makes possible the rapid installation andconfiguration of the OS over a network without having someone physicallylocated at the server computer. For the first time, Windows Deployment

Services allows network boot images so that preconfigured operatingsystems can be installed over the network with improved performance andmulticast deployment (the simultaneous deployment of many servers). Inaddition, a new management user interface (UI), scripting (WindowsPowerShell™ command line interface and Windows ManagementInstrumentation, or WMI), centralized Web server configuration, and aServer Core option (a bare-bones installation of the OS) give ITadministrators tools for maintaining and building out servers faster thanever.

In addition to speed of deployment and management, the performance of Windows Server has also been improved. One customer we spoke to

reported doubling its server capacity in the testing environment aftermigrating to the Windows Server 2008 built-in Web server application,Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0). While this big of a capacityincrease should not be expected by every company migrating to IIS 7.0, itdemonstrates that notable performance increases have been made. IIS 7.0also helps to read and measure performance in real time through RuntimeStatus and Control API (RSCA) and through performance counters thatcollect performance data.

Reduced Cost

The IT costs that make up TCO are all influenced in one way or another bya company’s IT infrastructure. Figure 1 illustrates the costs that make up

TCO for the IT budget. While server operating systems play a small part inthe overall IT landscape, they can make a disproportionately large impacton IT costs since they come into contact with every piece of the ITtopology. Windows Server 2008 has many new features and thousands of enhancements that decrease server downtime, restarts, updates, servicepacks, network errors, third-party software, security holes, manualoversight, network traffic, deployment headaches, server load, and eventhe physical size of the OS itself. As evidenced, every single category of IT

TCO is directly benefited by changes made in Windows Server 2008.Although a 79 percent reduction in the number of Web servers, as we sawat one company that upgraded to Windows Server 20082, may not registeras 1 percent of a Fortune 100 company’s IT budget, it does equate tohundreds of thousands of dollars in hardware, energy, and staff costreductions—enough to gain notice and even fund new projects andinitiatives.

2 Tesco.com case study, Capgemini and Microsoft, January 2008.




Figure 1. Factors that comprise IT total cost of ownership (TCO).3

In our interviews with customers, the biggest projected cost reductions

came from the biggest cost category, staffing. None of the early adopterswe talked to made headcount or staffing changes during the deploymentor subsequent production operation of Windows Server 2008, due to therelatively small scope of the program. What we did conclude, however,was that if Windows Server 2008 continued to make the impact it hadmade before the official Release to Manufacturing (RTM) or commerciallaunch of Windows Server 2008, IT staff could recover 0.9 full-timeequivalents (FTEs).

Management

We spoke to many IT professionals who were responsible for the day-to-

day upkeep and long-term strategy of their company’s serverinfrastructure. We heard their pain regarding server management, “Patch Tuesday” being the number-one issue for most. “Patch Tuesday” is theinformal name given to the concept introduced by Microsoft in whichsecurity updates are accumulated over the period of a month and thenreleased together on the second Tuesday of each month. The reasoningbehind this is to give IT administrators a chance to prepare for updatesand to plan the testing of these updates. The paradox with updates is thatthey are essential to keeping an operating system secure as systems andvulnerabilities evolve, but they also cause chaos in an otherwise stableplatform. We heard a number of administrators note that they often takean entire month to evaluate, test, and deploy updates to make sure they

don’t cause conflicts with existing systems. With the introduction of theServer Core installation option in Windows Server 2008, Microsoft hopes tolessen the need for updates by reducing the footprint of the OS. TheServer Core installation option is available for use with Active Directory®

Domain Services, Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services, DHCP,DNS, Web (IIS), File, Print, and Hyper-V™ server roles. Many customers wespoke to viewed Server Core as an important solution to a long-termproblem. Although Server Core won’t eliminate updates entirely, it will

3 “Demonstrating Business Value” white paper, IDC, April 2007.




help to greatly reduce the number of updates needed, compared to a fullinstallation of Windows Server 2008, because the OS can tell whether aparticular update applies to a given computer based on applicability rules.

Microsoft has been noted for its excellent management tools and scripts;Windows Server 2008 continues that trend. With this release, Microsoft is

introducing new UI tools, command line tools, modular features, serverroles, remote administration tools, WMI enhancements, and more.Powerful new scripting tools such as the Windows PowerShell commandline interface make it possible for administrators to automate complexmanagement tasks. Scripted administration, for instance, works especiallywell with remote administration of Server Core installations via WMIconsoles. None of the early adopters of Windows Server 2008 in oursurvey happened to be using Server Core or Windows PowerShell at thetime of our interviews (each was focused on other usage scenarios), but allplanned to use the Server Core option in the next year.

One company we spoke to was able to replace in-house reporting toolsthat monitored the health of its servers with the out-of-the-box tools

provided with Windows Server 2008. Replacing custom tools withcommercial off-the-shelf products has the obvious benefit of movingsupport costs to the manufacturer and having a simpler upgrade plan.

Reliability

When we asked one Windows Server 2008 customer toidentify the number one expectation of its servers, thecustomer responded, “Stay up, don’t crash, be able tostay on long-term.” This may sound like a pretty easyrequest to fulfill, but, in reality, maintaining a 99.99percent server uptime has not always been easy. Servers

require routine updates that include security updates,policy changes, and service packs, not to mention rebootsrequired by the applications that run on these servers.

Reliability doesn’t end with server uptime either. It alsomeans that the servers are secure, predictable, easy todiagnose, and don’t require significant upkeep. The cost of an unreliable server can be significant. Bringing down aserver for maintenance can mean lost revenue, but asecurity penetration can be detrimental.

In developing Windows Server 2008, Microsoft hasmade a number of significant advances in reliability.

High-availability clustering, the epitome of serverreliability, has been improved to reduce the number of single points of failure and validation of configurationsduring setup. Server Core promises to reduce thenumber of updates as well as the operating system’sattack surface. For example, changes to ActiveDirectory (called Active Directory Domain Serviceswith the launch of Windows Server 2008) now requireonly a restart of Active Directory rather than a reboot

“All things considered, asecurity breach can costyou anywhere between$90 and $305 per record.

This means that the costof a single, significantbreach may run into

millions or even billions of dollars. The cost of thebreach will varysignificantly based on thepublic profile of thebreach and theregulations that apply toyour organization, whichvaries from industry toindustry.”

“Calculating the Cost of a Security Breach,”Khalid Kark, Forrester,April 10, 2007

“With Windows

Server 2008, we canprovide a betterplatform fordevelopingapplications in thefuture. This is onearea that we lookforward todeveloping.”

Jeffrey Sukardi,Head of IT Security,Bank of Central Asia




of the entire system. All of these improvements make Windows Server2008 the most reliable server Microsoft has released to date.

One company we talked to has deployed the Windows Server 2008 read-only domain controller (RODC) to improve the reliability and security of itsbranch office servers. By putting a read-only instance of Active Directory

Domain Services closer to the resources that consume its services, thebranch offices experience a performance and reliability boost whileremaining secure if an intruder gains physical access to the remote serverrunning Active Directory Domain Services because changes cannot bemade to an RODC We observed improved reliability such as this exampleat each company in our survey.

Foundation for Business Solutions

The roles of the servers in a business usually can be categorized as:

• Servers that provide foundational or infrastructure functions such asprinting, file services, network services (including security and

policy enforcement and network protocol), and infrastructuremanagement.

• Servers that run applications and business solutions.

The servers that run applications are almost always the servers thatgenerate revenue. These are also the servers that run the systems thatdifferentiate one company from the next. At Capgemini, we routinely workwith customers that create new value-added offerings that are possibleonly because of leading-edge technology. Having a server platform withmore powerful features inevitably leads to innovation by the people whouse it. Windows Server 2008 supports the Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5and includes IIS 7.0. These two improvements alone give developers a

host of resources with which to create Web applications that weren’tpossible before. For example, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)and Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) technologies, also included inWindows Server 2008, make it possible for developers to build applicationsthat more easily take advantage of Service Oriented Architecture.

Because the creation of innovative systems lags behind the release of theenabling technology, we did not see any examples of new applicationsbeing built with the new features of Windows Server 2008, but we did hearabout future plans to do so. One Indonesian bank, which recently migrated118 branch offices to Windows Server 2008, plans to use the Windowsplatform as the backbone of application development and expects that itwill dramatically streamline business processes. It has already begundeveloping new Windows-based applications that handle credit scoringand loan approval, and in the near future will create an end-userapplication that will handle daily business transactions such as withdrawsand deposits.




Support

A principal advantage of commercial off-the-shelf software is that it issupported by its manufacturer. By keeping ahead of the software-supportlife cycle, companies reduce the risk that issues will arise that they can’tsolve themselves and assure that updates will continue to be made to

keep systems reliable and secure. A September 2007 Gartner reportconcluded that, “The end of life of an operating system release is a biggermigration driver than the launch of a new release.”4 Upgrading to theWindows Server 2008 operating system gives a company many newfeatures to take advantage of, but it also extends the lifespan of its serverinfrastructure.

The majority of the companies we talked to specifically mentioned keepingahead of the support life cycle as partial motivation for upgrading toWindows Server 2008. For example, one senior engineering manager toldus that support from Microsoft was at the top of her list for using WindowsServer 2008: “We try to keep up with technology. We try and stay currentbefore we have to pay for support, and to do that we have to look at newproducts before they come out.”

4 “Windows Server 2008: Why You Should Care,” John Enck, Gartner, September 25, 2007.




Windows Server Usage Scenarios

We have heard what early customers of Windows Server 2008 expect froma server platform. Some of these things are drivers of business value andsome of them are basic system requirements. We thought it would be

interesting to make a comparison of where users of Windows Server 2008saw value and where Microsoft is expecting its customers to see value.What we noticed was that Microsoft has a refined message of increasingvalue through its new server OS that goes beyond the basic needsarticulated by the customers. A few customers of Windows Server 2008were overwhelmed by the number of new features rolled out in this latestrelease and are choosing to focus on one or two of the more significantimprovements or on improvements that result in quicker realization of business value.

Many companies are looking to Microsoft for guidance on where to focusfirst. Microsoft has identified six scenarios in which customers are focusing

to take advantage of improvements to the OS. It is worth a quick look ateach of these scenarios and what customers thought of them before we

jump into the customer evidence.

Security and Policy Enforcement

Security and policy concerns typically involve suchcomponents as event correlation, compliance, securityupdates, upgrades, identity management, policymanagement, backups, deployment, health monitoring, andfirewall mitigations for client and server computers. Securityand policy enforcement are so critical to an enterprise’s

infrastructure that many IT departments will upgrade theirserver operating systems with the sole purpose of hardeningtheir systems to make them more impervious to attackers.

Improving security compliance can be achieved throughenforceable policy management and standards. However,making such improvements often runs into usability issues, sothe solution must be carefully designed to address ease of usefor end users as well as IT security administration. As withdeployment, the highest cost in developing securitycompliance is the cost of human resources, so IT and legaldepartments should strive to automate their security functionsthrough integrated workflows and technology.

Windows Server 2008 improves security and policyenforcement in a number of inventive ways. First, by reducingthe operating system’s attack surface with a minimalinstallation, Server Core hardens essential, high-risk targetssuch as file services, print servers, DHCP servers, and Web(IIS) servers. Fewer files mean fewer updates, fewer avenuesfor an attacker to take, and reduced management. Microsoftestimates that Server Core can reduce the number of updates

“Because corporate andindividual identity fraudcontinue to grow at asignificant rate, oftenaided by easy access topersonal data, regulatorsare not likely to relaxtheir efforts for sometime to come.Enterprises, therefore,remain awash in a sea of expanding regulations,with little hope thesituation will improve.”

"Using Security ComplianceSoftware to Improve BusinessEfficiency andReduce Costs,"Charles Kolodgy,Gerry Pintal, and Rose Ryan,Symantec Corporation, June 2006




to Windows Server 2008 by as much as 50 percent compared to the fullinstallation.5

Second, the addition of Network Access Protection (NAP) helpsorganizations to ensure compliance with security and policy requirements.NAP provides a platform for ensuring that all computers connecting to a

network via a wired or wireless connection meet administrator-definedsystem health specifications (such as whether the computer has the latestcritical updates and antivirus software installed or a firewall enabled). If necessary, a computer can be quarantined to an isolated subnet, where itis given access to remediation servers or other resources necessary tobecome compliant with the network’s health standard. This allowscorporate networks to automatically handle system compliance andmitigates the risk of exposing sensitive networks to possible malwarecarried by connecting computers.

Branch Office

One of the most significant new features in Windows Server 2008, the

read-only domain controller increases security for remote domaincontrollers where physical security cannot be guaranteed. Each branchoffice can host a read-only replica of its Active Directory database. TheRODC holds the same objects and attributes, but without the risk of corrupting the Active Directory forest through locally originating changes.Any changes must be made to the writable domain at the head officelocation.

Numerous other improvements have been made in the areas of improvedsecurity and network performance. Notably, when coupled with WindowsBitLocker™ Drive Encryption technology, Windows Server 2008 providesdramatically bolstered security at insecure locations. While RODCs remove

the risk of locally originating changes to Active Directory Domain Services,Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption eliminates the risk associated with anunscrupulous person gaining physical access to the server. If someonedoes gain physical access to the server, or possibly steals the server harddisk drive, that person must first provide a key before the OS loads, andthere is no back door. The key can be either a PIN that must be enteredbefore booting the system, or a USB device that contains the requiredstartup key to boot the protected OS.

Microsoft has also made performance gains in Windows Server 2008 byincluding Server Message Block (SMB) 2.0, an update to the technologythat was first introduced with the Windows Vista® operating system. SMB2.0 supports an extensible way of compounding operations into a singlepacket to reduce the number of transmitted packets. With this improve-ment, some companies have experienced a dramatic decrease in transfertime. In June 2007, a Microsoft commissioned study by The Tully Groupfound that,

Just upgrading client PCs to Microsoft’s Windows Vista can yieldthroughput and time-to-completion improvements of up to 2.5Xover Windows XP. Complete migration of servers to Windows

5 “Introducing Windows Server 2008.” Mitch Tulluch, May 2007.




Server 2008 can yield throughput and time-to-completionimprovements of up to 3.5X over Windows XP/Windows Server2003.6

Other SMB 2.0 improvements include expanded buffer sizes and thenumber of concurrent file handles, which translate into reduced file

backup and file-share transfer time. This new technology works onlybetween computers running the Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008operating system.

Web and Application Platform

Windows Server 2008 comes with seventh iteration of Microsoft’s powerfulWeb server technology, Internet Information Services 7.0. Companies thatrely on Web-based services and applications will find great value byimplementing the latest version of IIS. Microsoft has built upon reputationof IIS 6.0 for high reliability and security by including new manageabilityand extensibility features found in the Windows Vista software.

IIS 7.0 performs a primary role in Windows Server 2008, providingcompanies with a platform for developing and hosting Web applicationsand services. Web administrators benefit from a completely modular setupthat requires only the needed functionality to be installed. This limits theattack surface exposed, boosts performance, and lowers the serverfootprint and update-related downtime. Each module is fully extensiblethrough managed .NET code, so customers can modify IIS to suit theirunique needs. This extensibility also makes it easy for Microsoft to addnew features and functionality to IIS through Web server extensions thatwill be delivered over the Web.

Administrators will also benefit from simplified management tools and newtroubleshooting diagnostics. Capgemini observed in customers a 60 to 75

percent reduction in IT time spent configuring IIS 7.0 servers.

Server Management

Powerful new tools make managing Windows Server 2008–basedcomputers throughout an enterprise much easier. The integrated MicrosoftManagement Console (MMC), Server Manager, is a single, graphical-user-interface source for managing server roles and features and checkingserver status. A command-line version, ServerManagerCmd.exe, is alsoavailable that can quickly and easily add roles and features to a server.

The new Windows PowerShell command line interface and scriptinglanguage gives administrators an easy and powerful method of managing

services, processes, and storage. This scripting language includes morethan 130 cmdlets, preprogrammed lightweight commands that can beused to manage server roles such as Internet Information Services,

Terminal Services, and Active Directory Domain Services.

In addition, new remote management technologies provide administratorswith easier remote access to servers. This has allowed some companies to

6 "Enhanced Network Performance with Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008," The Tully Group, June2007.




reduce the number of local staff hours assigned to managing servers.Remote provisioning has also made a significant impact in several of thecompanies that Capgemini interviewed. One company, which provisionedalmost all of its servers remotely using Windows Deployment Services,reduced the time it took to provision a server by approximately 60percent.

Windows Deployment Services, the successor to Remote InstallationServices, is a new technology in Windows Server 2008 that streamlines thedeployment process. Specifically updated to enable the deployment of theWindows Vista operating system, Windows Deployment Services can alsobe used to deploy server and client software running on other operatingsystems. The same Web hosting company saw early benefits by usingWindows Deployment Services: The company’s IT department is expectedto save more than 550 hours per year in image maintenance and hascompletely eliminated third-party provisioning tools. Using a Pre-BootExecution Environment (PXE) server and Trivial File Transfer Protocol(TFTP) allows network-based installations, which eliminates the need for

an administrator to be physically present at the computer. This capabilityenabled the Web hosting company to provision Web servers across theworld from its central office in the United States.

Presentation Virtualization

With Terminal Services, also known as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), arelatively lightweight desktop computer can connect to applications orentire Windows sessions running on a remote server and see thempresented as if they were running on the desktop computer. With TerminalServices Gateway in Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has evolved previousreleases of RDP to work without the requirement of virtual privatenetworks (VPNs) when connecting to internal corporate or privatenetworks over the Internet. With Windows Server 2008 Terminal ServicesRemoteApp™, individual applications can run from a terminal server whilethe graphical presentation of the application is shown on the user’sdesktop, without the hassle and confusion of virtualizing the entiredesktop. Application virtualization has benefited several companies thatsupport many remote employees. For example, one such company in adeveloping nation was able to virtualize its business-critical applications bytransferring the processing to central servers rather than running theapplications on otherwise incompatible hardware. Further, practicalimprovements in printing and file sharing have been added to allow usersto work with local printers and files.

Terminal Services is now much easier to use. Companies using TerminalServices RemoteApp programs have experienced as many as 75 percentfewer help-desk calls relating to user confusion. Remotely located ortravelling employees gain greater access to company resources with

Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services Web Access, whichallows users to connect from a Web browser using an HTTPS connectioninstead of opening a new port and installing Terminal Services clientsoftware. File and Printer Redirection solves a common complaint of




administrators by redirecting file system and print requests to the localdesktop, allowing local printing from remote servers.

High Availability

Every IT department commands the role of ensuring that critical

applications and services are available with as little interruption anddowntime as possible. Clustering servers mitigates the risk of a singleserver failing—a single point of failure—and bringing down business-critical applications or services. Failover clustering, formerly known asserver clustering, involves configuring a group of servers to act in a

standby capacity for each other. If a server fails, for one reasonor another, the other servers in the cluster will immediately andinvisibly take over the load. With failover clustering, customer-serving applications such as a Microsoft SQL Server® databaseor an e-commerce solution, can be guaranteed the highestpossible uptime. Lost revenues due to server downtime wouldbe reduced or eliminated.

The configuration and setup of failover clusters has beendramatically restructured. Previously requiring veryexperienced IT personnel to set them up, clusters can now becreated quickly and easily by inexperienced staff with a newmanagement and configuration interface. The ClusterValidation Wizard guides administrators through apredeployment verification process of the cluster’s system,storage, and network configuration. Other improvementsinclude the ability to better support Storage Area Networks andDirect Attached Storage. For example, administrators can nowbring a new hard disk online within the cluster withoutinterrupting service. Network Load Balancing (NLB) is alsoimproved in Windows Server 2008. NLB fully supports IPv6 innode-to-node and node-to-client communications.

Capgemini observed that companies that implemented failover clusters inWindows Server 2008 experienced a reduction in maintenance andadministration costs. Companies that previously employed a cluster expertcould use the improved management tools instead and refocus resourcesto more value-added activities. This shift in efforts directly translated intosavings in support costs and implementation times. One company wasable to achieve 100 percent availability of its e-mail servers, and anotherwas able to deploy new servers to its cluster in days instead of weeks.

“A reliable ITinfrastructure directlyequates to businesssuccess. The Center forInformation SystemsResearch (CISR) at the

MIT Sloan School of Management foundthat a reliableinfrastructure can‘lower costs of goodssold, increase profitand innovation, andhelp [boost] marketvalue.”

"Evaluating IT Reliability:Prerequisite to CIO Success,"CIO2CIO Perspectives




Customer Evidence

Through the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program, select companiesdeployed the Windows Server 2008 operating system before its officialrelease. Our collecting of evidence from companies that used Windows

Server 2008 was two-pronged: Statistical evidence was gathered througha Benefits Framework survey tool sent to a large number of customers,and anecdotal evidence was gathered by interviewing key individualsinvolved in deploying, managing, and using Windows Server 2008. Wethen attempted to relate the value companies got from Windows Server2008 back to the requirements and usage scenarios described in thepreceding sections.

The customers that participated in the Benefits Framework survey span allmajor industries and geographies. The Benefits Framework tool takes inobserved data before and after the deployment of Windows Server 2008 inorder to compare and contrast how Windows Server 2008 affected the

company. The framework assigns a monetary cost or value to a number of activities, tasks, and issues.

Whereas the Benefits Framework tool focused on assigning a dollar figureto the value of Windows Server 2008, our customer interviews picked upon subjective, personal, and intangible value. The benefits of saving twohours in setting up a server cluster may not be significant, but ask yourserver administrator what it took to set up a cluster prior to WindowsServer 2008 and you’ll hear the benefit loud and clear.

We found that Windows Server 2008 reduces time spent on serverdeployment, management, and maintenance but—because mostcustomers were upgrading from its already reliable predecessor, Windows

Server 2003—the numbers weren’t always staggering. However, evensmall timesavings add up when done thousands of times. For example,one customer saw a 60 percent reduction of deployment time withWindows Deployment Services. This equated to 5 hours saved perdeployment, if done by non-specialized staff. But, since this company doeshundreds of server deployments a year, it will be able to save anestimated 1,500 hours annually—a little less than one dedicated humanresource.

Interestingly, many customers told us that cost savings from reducingserver administrative time was not one of their main objectives for usingWindows Server 2008. While this cost savings was appreciated, they weremore interested in the improvements in security, increased functionality,staying ahead of the support life cycle, or eliminating in-house or third-party solutions. For example, one customer will be able to reducemaintenance of server images used for server deployments by over 550hours in 2008. This savings was insignificant compared to the businessvalue they saw in not having to worry that “there was a risk that our wholehouse of cards will come down” because so many distinct piecespreviously had to come together into that image. By using Windows Server




2008 instead of a collection of in-house and third-party tools, thiscustomer’s risk of losing its “whole house of cards” was eliminated.

We also saw that users of Windows Server 2008 often achieve realbusiness value even if it doesn’t result in increased revenue or reductionin cost. A university that uses the new Network Access Protection (NAP)

feature in Windows Server 2008 summed up this phenomenon with ananalogy:

Most of the benefits we see are qualitative. To use a militaryanalogy, the Australian Army has just replaced its fleet of agingLeopard II tanks with M1A1 Abrams tanks. The Leopard IIscompletely failed to show a profit. There was negative return oninvestment in purely financial terms. The new tanks are superior inevery way that counts, however they will still earn absolutely noprofit. The business value is not really defined in dollar terms. Wedo see great benefits from Windows Server 2008 and NAP, but theyare not really quantifiable in dollar terms either. Like the tanks, wewill have better tools for the job, but they are never going to make

money for us and we can’t really say how many dollars they willsave.7

Although most of the companies that participated in the Microsoft RapidDeployment Program did not list cost savings or revenue generation asone of their goals for using Windows Server 2008, empirical evidenceshowed that they achieved cost savings whether or not they set out to doso. The following highlights and statistics were taken from a group of twenty early adopters of Windows Server 2008.

Windows

ServerUsage Scenarios Business Value Benefits

Security andPolicyEnforcement

• Reduced help-desk calls regarding client-side security by 70%

• Raised network compliance to 85% through auto-remediation

• Moved two FTEs from paper-based compliance checking to newtechnology initiatives: cost avoidance of $157,000

• Reduced help-desk calls regarding client-side security by 75%in the 6 months after deployment

• Reduced management of IT security by 14%

• Reduced risk of data loss by 10%

Branch Office • Reduced number of domain controller servers at main office by80% by implementing read-only domain controllers in branchoffices

• Saved $70,000 by using server consolidation and virtualizationtechnology

7 David Hird, Systems Architect, La Trobe University




Web andApplicationPlatform

• Reduced number of required IIS servers by 70% due toincreased capacity gained by upgrading to IIS 7.0 from IIS 6.0

• Saved 1,000 hours per year in maintenance time

• Reduced time spent deploying new sites or making changes toexisting sites by 66%

• Reduced time spent provisioning Web server by 75%

• Reduced time spent configuring and load-balancing Web serverby 80%

• Increased Web site's performance by 40%

ServerManagement

• Reduced time to deploy Windows Server 2008 and WindowsServer 2003 by 60%

• Accelerated integration of mergers and acquisitions without theneed for VPNs by using Terminal Services

• Eliminated three third-party tools and applications by replacing

them with Windows Deployment Services, saving $73,000 onannual licensing costs

• Saved 588 hours per year formerly spent on imagemaintenance by using Windows Deployment Services

• Reduced server management time by 93% by handlingcomplex task automation through Windows PowerShell, whichresulted in an estimated $500,000 cost savings

PresentationVirtualization

• Stopped sending sensitive data to offshore desktops andremote employees by using Terminal Services with TerminalServices Gateway

• Eliminated need for costly leased lines and VPNs by using

Terminal Services Gateway

• Reduced infrastructure and IT staff, resulting in $24,000 costsavings

• Reduced number of physical servers by 60%

• Reduced support time by 80%

HighAvailability

• Accelerated file access rates by as much as 40% over the rateexperienced with Windows Server 2003

• Deployed new servers in days instead of weeks

• Experienced 100% e-mail availability

Windows Server 2008 was directly responsible for an aggregate savings of approximately U.S$124,000 per year as part of the surveyed companies’participation in the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program. This number isinfluenced by the fact that Rapid Deployment Program deployments arelimited in scope to specific usage scenarios and to a subset of thecompanies’ entire Windows Server infrastructure.




Metric Value

Average deploymentduration 10.25 weeks

IT cost reduction U.S.$124,000/year

Potential staff reduction0.91 Full-timeequivalents

Potential server reduction 63%




Conclusion

Companies rely on their IT systems to deliver business value. Whether byreducing costs or increasing revenue, Windows Server 2008 makesincreased business value possible. Capgemini’s viewpoint is that Windows

Server 2008 performs better than its predecessor in every way and thatboth major and minor improvements have resulted in an operating systemthat has delivered observable business value to the customers wesurveyed.

Based on the empirical data collected on the value of Windows Server2008 and anecdotal evidence from the customers we spoke to, we seethat IT departments can benefit from Windows Server 2008 by reducingthe time IT staff must spend on managing servers; as we noted, many of the companies we spoke to did not set out to reduce costs or staff timespent managing servers. Business users will see less initial value ascustomers port existing applications onto the new OS. As companies begin

to expand into new functionality, however, business users will start to gainfrom improved availability and applications made possible by the newfeatures of Windows Server 2008.

Although Windows Server 2008 clearly demonstrated value, the cost totransition from Windows Server 2003 may not always be the mostpractical. For example, enterprises with rudimentary applications thatcannot or will not take advantage of the features of Windows Server 2008are unlikely to gain much value. We observed this in the case of onecustomer that did a straight migration from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0 withoutupdating code or configurations to take advantage of the upgrade’simprovements. Similarly, another customer moved a single applicationfrom an older server operating system to Windows Server 2008 withoutupdating the application to use any of the features debuting in WindowsServer 2008 and didn’t see the value that other customers saw.

Due to the expeditious nature of the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program,in which companies had a limited amount of time to plan and deployWindows Server 2008, we observed that planning a Windows Server 2008implementation is not something to be rushed. A number of the companieswe spoke to ran into a common issue in which the scope of theimplementation ballooned as new features were observed. Projectmanagers became overwhelmed as IT engineers went giddy with a wishlist of new projects that could take advantage of the new features. Thiscaused the project team to lose focus as it added new features into its

scope, only to scratch these items as time ran out.Another issue we saw was that departments involved in the WindowsServer 2008 Rapid Deployment Program tended to maintain focus on theirpiece of the IT landscape without full realization of the benefits WindowsServer 2008 could have on the rest of the company. We recommend thatcompanies find a balance between running wild with new features andtaking too narrow of an approach. In our research, we found that weweren’t the only ones to come to this conclusion, as IDC reported: “In




reality, most customers will need to step back and look at the largerpicture and determine their architectural plans for configuring next-generation Windows deployments.”8

Although a company can elect to plan and implement Windows Server2008 on its own, often the preferable option is to engage the vendor or a

third-party professional services organization in determining the solution. The Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program provided the companies wetalked to with consultants to help them succeed, and everyone we talkedto said that they couldn’t have done their deployment as well without thisadded help. We highly recommend engaging a Microsoft Certified Partnerin planning and deploying any major Windows Server 2008implementation. These partners have practical experience in deployingsolutions and understand both the most expedient way to implementsystems as well as the areas of risk and change management that need tobe addressed. Partners typically have their own rigorous implementationmethodology, based on their own client implementation experiences,which incorporate leading practices and optimize the value from the

investment. Therefore, talk to your local Microsoft representative orMicrosoft Certified Partner to learn more about the role that technologycan play in improving your IT operations while delivering business value toyour enterprise.

8 “Worldwide System Infrastructure Software 2008 Top 10 Predictions,” IDC, December 2007.




About Capgemini and the Collaborative BusinessExperience

Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of Consulting,

Technology, and Outsourcing services, has a unique way of working withits clients, called the Collaborative Business Experience. Backed by overthree decades of industry and service experience, the CollaborativeBusiness Experience is designed to help our clients achieve better, faster,more sustainable results through seamless access to our network of world-leading technology partners and collaboration-focused methods and tools.

Through commitment to mutual success and the achievement of tangiblevalue, we help businesses implement growth strategies, leveragetechnology, and thrive through the power of collaboration. Capgeminiemploys approximately 83,500 people worldwide and reported 2007 globalrevenues of €8.7 billion (U.S.$13.1 billion).

More information about our services, offices, and research is available at:www.capgemini.com

http://www.capgemini.com/

http://www.capgemini.com/



This is a preliminary document and may be changed substantially prior to final commercia l release of the software

described herein. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issuesdiscussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should notbe interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of anyinformation presented after the date of publication.

This white paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THISDOCUMENT.

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